when all is said and done, i wanted to go to the congo and i did. ♪ they don't look friendly. who are those -- anyway. >> some ugly dutch guys it looks like with guns. i'm guessing particularly friendly to the current power. they look like they are either coming from or going from an oppressing black man. first order of business, man. when i take my country back, first order of business is to take that -- down.

am i right or what? i'm kind of amazed. tear that down. ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪ ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la la ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la la ♪

in july 2013, when i went to south africa, 95-year-old nelson mandela was critically ill. in the country he freed from white minority rule was already in mourning. and already fearful of what the future might be without him. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> i pray that he -- somebody takes the baton from him. >> i wish him a speedy recovery. and come back to his people. ♪ >> so a good friend of mine, a really great travel writer, said something. the more i travel, the less i

>> so a good friend of mine, a really great travel writer, said something. the more i travel, the less i know. i feel that particularly strongly in south africa, a place i came in a state of near total ignorance, loaded with preconceptions. for the first part of my life, the south africa i knew was not a happy place or a good place. it was a pariah state. surrealistically, outrageously divided into black and white. a throwback to attitudes we thought we'd long learned to reject. ♪ >> the nationalist government in south africa enacted apartheid laws in 1948. who you could marry. where you lived. where you could walk, be educated, everything decided by racist laws backed by police,

army and secret services. the institutionalized racial discrimination was designed to maintain white minority power and economically suppress the black and mixed race south africans who lived in townships, mostly in poverty. in 1923, the african national congress was formed. by 1961, it had been radicalized by the influence of a young nelson mandela, among others, and formed an armed wing called the spear of the nation. >> do you see africans being able to develop in this country without being pushed out? >> we have made it very clear in our policy that south africa is a country of many races. there is room for all the various races. >> in 1963, mandela was charged with sabotage and conspiracy and sentenced to life imprisonment on robben island.

it would take another 27 years of silence and injustice before the inevitable would happen. >> do you believe in apartheid? >> i believe, according to god's will, that the white race should be preserved. >> with south africa's white minority under international sanctions, internal political pressure and the decline of the communist threat, mandela was released from prison in 1990. in '94, he was elected president of the new, free south africa. ♪ there have been very few figures in the entire history of the world as revered or as important as nelson mandela. but the question is, what happens next?

♪ >> johannesburg or joburg or jozi. the largest city by population in south africa, and the economic powerhouse of the country. southwest of johannesburg, soweto. originally an acronym for southwestern townships. now the area is considered a suburb. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> in 2010, south africa played host to the world cup. the black jacks who played for the opening celebration are a soweto based band. they are also, not surprisingly, soccer fans. ♪ ♪

>> we're here on game day. a grudge match in a country where soccer approaches religion. you can feel it in soweto or rather you can see it as everywhere you look, people show their love for the local orlando pirates or for the johannesburg kaiser chiefs. mawilies inn. a typical local joint in soweta. the perfect place to talk about a game, drink yourself silly over the results of a game, or just have a very fine local style meal. it is, however, a little hard to find. there are a lot of places like this? i mean, this used to be the garage or the carport, right? >> yeah. definitely. >> in what was once a garage are now six tables. a lawn turned lounge out back. closed on sundays if grandma's visiting.

these kinds of bars were born during apartheid times when black south africans not allowed to own businesses in white areas adapted and improvised. they did their own thing. created these little micro, under the official radar restaurants known around here as eat houses. >> back in the days, obviously, it was illegal. >> right. >> during apartheid. so they will have meetings to actually plan what they're going to do. >> right. so this would be considered a hotbed of sedition. >> exactly. >> now it's just a hot bed of drinking. >> yeah. different kind of sedition. >> the black jacks have just finished watching the game when i join them for food. are these good times in south africa? bad times? transitional times? >> oh, yes. 1994 was the peak of the good time in south africa. then now with the other politics and other parties fighting, it's

quite tense right now. >> it's not like it was before where everybody's -- you know, it's black and white. literally. we're unified on this. they're unified on that. >> these days, the party that freed the country from white rule, the anc, is not universally loved anymore. in recent years, they've been criticized for inaction, corruption and cronyism. and opposition parties are gaining strength. >> i think that's maybe new to us, i think we're trying to navigate reality. how do you deal with so many opinions? the party that you loved the whole time, that brought about this freedom, is fumbling the ball. so what do you do? because in democracy, you should act. >> smileys.

>> oh. >> smileys. fire roasted sheep's head. lips shrivelled back in a joker like rictus of deliciousness. chopped into tasty, tasty bits and eaten with cold beer? yes, of course, yes. just needs a little salt and pepper. >> good stuff. that looks good. >> it's pap. >> what is it? >> it's like maize. >> a sticky porridge from ground meal. it fills the role grits do in the american southwest. rice in much of asia. it's tasty, relatively nutritious and cheap filler. it sops up gravy when you have something like this stewed beef real good. >> that's a dumpling. >> that's a dumpling? >> dumplings. important throughout the africa diaspora. made with flour and yeast.

a spongy, bread type tool for mop it up sauce. stewed greens, carrots, beans and more gravy. that's awesome. tell me about your band. how long have you guys been together? >> about ten years now. >> whoa. a long time. >> yeah. >> would you say you were an indie band? is there an indie theme? what i guess i'm getting at, is there a -- i was kind of getting there. ♪ >> in terms of south african street culture, people are really pushing the boundaries now. you didn't really have a theme when we started. you look around. it's like, man, like demographic is crazy. >> what do you mean by that? >> it's not just racial, but classes, you know? >> people are being pushed and pulled.

>> it's like an aspirational culture. >> what do you think that means? >> the whole rainbow nation notion was quite romantic and ridiculous. you know, like racism is not on a piece of paper. just because we voted it out doesn't mean people stop being racist. it's ridiculous in that sense. but we've lived something else for 20 years. people want it. it's no longer like a coffee table idea.

♪ [ speaking in foreign language ] >> this is sanza sandile.

pioneer of sorts. he's taken a traditional cook shop space in a neighborhood of johannesburg and done something different. yeoville is a neighborhood where just about everybody comes from somewhere else. >> i came here around ten years ago from soweto. up in soweto. then when heard about the bells of change, we all ran to the central part of the city. >> with the end of apartheid and emergence of mandela, south africa became a beacon and a refuge for millions of africans from all over the continent. black south africans fought hard for their freedom and their country. as i understand, a lot of them are pretty pissed off about we're just getting our -- together and all these congolese and nigerians are coming here. >> sanza has no formal culinary training. he's completely self-taught.

picking up bits and pieces where he can. often from the women in the neighborhood. >> you're plucking the best of everybody in the culture. >> every day. every day i learn. what are you eating? where are you from? i've been taught by some men. that's not how it's cooked at home, you know? go to that auntie. to the back of some dingy cab. there's a small kitchen. look, there, it'll be nice. she'll teach you something and then that is me. hey, auntie, you know, i'm really keen on knowing how you make your particular sauce. >> they'll show you? >> she will show me stuff and i pick up. then i rush back to the shop and i try it out. i have all of the elements now. >> at his cook shop, he mixes recipes, ingredients, techniques and traditions as he sees fit. one reviewer described his style as gastronomic smuggling, moving people across borders with

dishes that slightly partake of elsewhere. on today's menu -- >> i made this for you. this is egusi and beef. >> beef stewed with melon and pumpkin seeds. there's futu. ubiquitous cornmeal porridge. made from a texture more crumbly than pap. >> good taste. oh, yeah. awesome. good food here. menu change every day? you do a lot of great food in a small space. there are no seats. his customers remain part of the constantly unfolding street theater of yeoville. they mingle, talk, observe. >> with food, i knew food is a

way to engage. got to put something in your mouth to get your ears open, you know. ♪ >> across town, another pioneer of sorts. an urban settler in a very different neighborhood. this is hillbrow. a notoriously dangerous district. and this is deejay lez. >> when i came here, i always dreamed of being a musician. i see myself singing in front of huge crowds, you know, making money in the process. that's what i dreamt about. >> he spins records and promotes acts and events in nightclubs. we meet in his favorite spot. sympathy's restaurant. what's good? what do you like? that looks good. is that fried chicken? >> that's the fried chicken.

>> the place is heavy with the smell of frying chicken, stewing greens. walk right up. place your order. and be sure to get some mill pap. heaped on a plate with beets and coleslaw that's a nice, heavy base. >> tell me about the neighborhood. >> when i first came, it was rough, my friend. >> before '92, it was like white business district? residential district? >> back then, it used to be clean. it used to be respected. >> once, hillbrow was an elite whites only center of town. but when things started to change, so did hillbrow. becoming one of the first gray areas where whites and blacks mixed. hillbrow became aspirational. a symbol of everything black africans had long been denied, but was now accessible. people poured in in large

numbers. many of them squatters from all over the continent. >> people come here, they come here with one intention. making a living. making money. started coming here. >> white landlords and tenants simply walked away from their property. the disenfranchised who moved in legally, semi legally, illegally or just squatting, an influx of gangs and criminal organizations, the area soon slipped into anarchy. >> there's a saying around here. okay? this building's been hijacked. >> entire buildings became drug stories for elicit operations. everything that could go wrong, did. >> people make a living from different things. some hurt people to make a living. some they sell their bodies. sometimes things aren't always according to what you plan. this is where i live. this is where my life is.

i'll show you. >> we walk down the street and one of the many enterprises doing business on corners and in doorways around us becomes alarmed at the sight of our cameras. soon, there's a mob of very angry people coming our way. we do not turn around our cameras for obvious reasons. these days, things are slowly, slowly improving. >> but before, we wouldn't walk this freely. now we are free. >> there's actual law enforcement going on in fits and starts. and that's making a difference. black owned legitimate businesses have gained a real foothold. there are new revitalization projects like farmer's markets springing up. buildings are being reclaimed. and people here hope that hillbrow is past the bad old days. >> there's no fear now. you have to relax. ♪

♪ ♪

what's in a name? if the name is soweto, you best believe it means plenty. this is madu. for over a decade, he's been in what has, at times, been the very difficult business of driving a taxi. you should probably know that the word taxi in soweto means something a little different than, say, new york. >> how many taxis do you have in soweto?

>> this coming from a particular passenger means soweto. also this and this. johannesburg has an elaborate system of hand signals indicating desired routes of travel. >> you're looking at the hand signals and say i'm not going there, i'm not going there? >> i'm looking at hand signals. >> in 1994, soweto came into being as a less denied version of workers lodging. a place to put black laborers comfortably removed from white society. a ghetto. by the 1950s, it had become the center of resistance to white rule. synonymous with the struggle against the whole rotten racist system. >> i remember a day. put me some shoes and hide me there.

>> now there is a definite cache to having lived in soweto. a very real pride back at being in the center of things back when it was hard and dangerous to have an opinion. nelson mandela lived here. desmond tutu. when you're of certain age and you say you were born and bred in soweto, it means something. do mostly people own their homes or do they rent? >> mostly people own their homes. >> things start to get a little better. can you build up? >> you can build up. >> look at the streets here and you see what that kind of pride does. it may not be a rich area, but

it's immaculate. squared away. an emerging middle class coming up, rather than fleeing to elsewhere. >> you know where you're going, right? >> yeah, i know where i'm going. >> next exit? smoky delicious meat over flame. under the overpass, all sorts of mystery meats for sale. the taxi man's lunch. we order some brisket, some sausage, some heart. beautiful thing. meat, a cutting board, a knife. >> you chose well. these guys are good. ♪

>> here, spread over thousands of square feet, the remnants of white colonial rule. what's left from the descendants of bible thumping dutch settlers who came here to farm, to ranch, to build their own world on top of an existing one. the boer's, as they were known, came here in the 1600s. if nothing else can be said about them, they were a tough in the 1800s the british came. diamonds were discovered. greed heads jockeyed for power. there was war, and an ugly one. in the end, there was an uneasy shares of power. the boers been known as afrikaners. in the 20th century racist afrikaners ideology grew. apartheid was enacted. white domination because the rule for almost 100 years. but look! meat! you want to see an ex-pat south african weep, wave some of this

under their nose. it's like a mussolini themed restaurant? >> yeah. that's it. that's it. neofascist butchery. >> in the good old days. >> doesn't look like any butcher i've been into. >> our north of northwest by johannesburg is pretoria. still the administrative center of south africa. once the heart of apartheid. here you can find a father/son butchery, restaurant and themed museum. i just don't know how i feel about this place. it doesn't fit in with my white liberal guilt sensibility. >> with this paraphernalia in it, it just wouldn't be accepted. couldn't exist. >> as any south african butcher would, they sprinkle salt, brown sugar, more vinegar. pack in layers, repeat. after 24 hours, remove and hang to air dry for a week. voila. a tasty jerky treat we can all get behind.

chef andrea burgener, south african by birth, english and german by background, can usually be found in the trenches of her joburg restaurant, the leopard. she's known for her playful menus but loathes culinary fashion. she strives for a locally grounded cuisine. today, however, she's my guide through this twilight zone. ♪ >> it's weird here. and though i'm told the place usually reflects the changing demographic of modern south africa, today, not so much. the customers may or may not have feelings about the afrikaner memorabilia. really they just come for the meat. choose t-bone, rum steak. spicy sausage made from beef and pork.

>> our secret ingredient is monkey gland sauce. do you know what that is? >> monkey gland sauce? >> every steak house has monkey gland sauce. it's barbecue sauce. >> they cook it up along with some pap and fries and presto. a colon clogging pile of meat in the ruins of empire. >> yeah. i mean, meat is a very big thing. there's enough of it, i think. >> good lord. i bet i could swim in it. tastes like oppression. after this show airs, i'm going to get a huge amount of mail says why didn't you go to capetown? great modern restaurants. cutting edge chefs. is it all right i missed all that? >> i feel like those particular restaurants in capetown are not really representative of what most people in this country are eating. i think a lot of our most basic stuff is really what we do best. this food has absolutely got no interest in fashion. it's never going to change. there'll still be the monkey gland sauce. >> you think the white chefs here understand the greatest

advantage they have is that this enormous pan african larder of ingredients and flavors? >> no. if you're a whitey in the city, you're probably going to eat the worst food of anyone in the city, quite honestly. in every country, i mean, obviously food is political. it always feels like it's a bit more political here. that there are these layers of things that you couldn't have. like restaurants. i go to restaurants. i think to myself, wow, this many years ago, i couldn't have come here with this person. they were not allowed to sit in here. and i remember very clearly being around 8. the cafe owner would regularly not pay the customer who was black with change. he would pay him with bubble gum. and the guy somehow, he couldn't argue. if you were a black guy, you got your change in bubble gum. and you're standing there, 8 years old, feeling like, oh, my god, it was so terrible. but you couldn't say anything because that would have been

worse. it represented such badness. it just seems mad. ♪ uld save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that parker. well, did you know auctioneers make bad grocery store clerks? that'll be $23.50. now .75, 23.75, hold 'em. hey now do i hear 23.75? 24! hey 24 dollar, 24 and a quarter, quarter, now half, 24 and a half and .75! 25! now a quarter, hey 26 and a quarter, do you wanna pay now, you wanna do it, 25 and a quarter - sold to the man in the khaki jacket! geico. fifteen minutes could save you... well, you know.

this is an eland. the largest antelope in the world. it is also, unluckily for him, delicious. [ gunshots ] >> got him. >> i think that was very good. >> it's a little sad. >> you know what? that is such good meat. that's really what we do. >> though this one weighs in around a ton, rest assured, every bite, every scrap, will be eaten. some of that, tonight at dinner.

chef andrea burgener, deon, a local hunting expert, and myself join prospera bailey on his game farm. prospera dad was the legendary publisher of the slyly subversive magazine. a black oriented investigative magazine slickly disguised as glossy pop culture. prospera's farm is mere 20 miles from johannesburg. >> you see the city there? >> yeah. to have all this in sight of the city. near his farm and hidden within the city's shadow is what's known as the cradle of humankind. a unesco world heritage site. an incredible look back at where we, the human animal, came from. >> it's a classic little sink hole. >> there are loads of these. this is what this area is. the cradle.

it's called a cradle. now a world heritage site. because 60% of all the evidence for human evolution comes out of the valley. it's from caves like this that keep the record. that geology just conspires to preserve fossils. they're very, very rare things, but they're found more here in the last ten years than they're found anywhere. so you're home. this is where you started. >> this is my ancestral homeland? >> this is your ancestral homeland. ♪ >> that sound makes me happy. what does that sound remind you of, guys? what does that evoke for you, that sound? primeval. you know? happy childhood? soup over the fire. parental love? your enemy's genitals frying in hot oil? nothing? i get to work on the heart.

something i strongly suspect will be delicious. and i'm right. andrea works her magic on the liver. dredged in flour and sauteed. this loin seared and glazed with booze. there's eland paprikash. a riff on the hungarian stew with paprika, peppers, onion, tomatoes and cream. as the sunsets over the belt, johannesburg lights blinking in the distance, a feast. meat on the plate. blood on my pants. life is good. i've been very, very, very confused by my visit here. you've got basically a ghoulash here. the bread someone referred to as portuguese? >> yep. >> portuguese but it's from madera. that bread. flat bread. >> south africa, depending on who i talk to, is a completely different construct.

so some people someone who comes from somewhere else in africa and brings good along with them. other people malaysia, east indies, dutch, english influence. >> there were so many different colonialists. >> what at this table is originally african, and does that even have any mining? >> this wood is pine. >> i arrived in this country spectacularly ignorant. i will leave spectacularly ignorant.

ramadan. at this hour, all over johannesburg, members of south africa's sizable muslim community observe. the religion of islam, as well as many of south africa's most beloved and most delicious dishes and ingredients like sambal, chutney and bunny chow, come from malaysia, indonesia, india. during apartheid, many south africans would have been referred to as colored. colored didn't mean black. it meant everybody else who wasn't exactly white, asians and

mixed race. >> it's garlic, ginger and chiles. >> in the observatory neighborhood of johannesburg, the rasdian family prepares for the meal at sundown when fasting for ramadan is broken. joey is a standup comedian, an actor of cape malay background. this dish, panang curry with beef and eggs. joey's wife, cindy, prepares a chicken pie. son, hakeem, makes the traditional ramadan shake. daughter, laya. ♪ >> everything smells terrific. >> that's soup.

>> it's nicer to have soup after you've not eaten the whole day. it's light and nourishing and filling and all of those good things. >> there's also cheese and beef samosas. these are delicious. you were born here. born in johannesburg? >> yes, i was. >> so how are things? >> it depends on what you are speaking about. >> basically, things work. society operates the way society should. but on the other hand, in many ways, this is a new country. >> it is. it's 19 years old. >> everybody is from someplace else. >> i think the africans from the other countries see south africa as a place of hope. because if there's a lot here, then there are a lot of opportunities, lots of people might get from here. africans would come from far to find a little bit of something here. >> so how do you find south africa so far? >> i'm very comfortable here.

i like a country where people have a sense of humor. there's a lot of ball busting going on in this country. >> all the time. from the top to the bottom. >> twenty years from now, what is south africa going to be like? >> the ones that's giving our current president lots of hell. the ones born in the new democracy. >> right. >> or just before the first election. >> right. >> the born frees are like, look here, we went to school. this is right and this is wrong. what you're doing is wrong. but we're at a struggle. >> yeah. >> yeah. we are part of a struggle. i don't care. thank you for the struggle. >> now i want five bars on my 3g, i want wi-fi, and it better be high speed. >> absolute. >> i don't think the current politicians foresaw that. foresaw the born frees not supporting them.

>> there's a critical mass of young people that wants to change south africa in a positive way. how they do it or how they go about it, i don't know the answer to that. neither do they know the answer to that. but their intentions is clear.

no more hipster jokes. it's low hanging fruit. and one can no longer argue against the steady creek of their foodie sensibilities. cheeses, yes, right over there. handmade chartacrutery, yes. there. thin crust pizza, a very respectable piaya, yes, yes, and yes. it's official. they're here and they aren't going anywhere. i like the idea of a burger for breakfast or is there something perverse about that? throw in a crowd of much more diverse and hungry people, and you might think you're in brooklyn. surely, this is not a bad thing. this is neighbor goods market in a precinct of johannesburg. my dining companion features writer percy mumbando says we should hold out for this. the balkan burger. one with lots of cheese.

flattened ground beef seared over flames. >> cook the food right. >> add kaskaval and mozzarella cheese, fold it up, pick your condiments. cabbage, tomato, onion, lettuce, hot peppers. up to the roof with a view and eat. spicy. good. i guess i want to talk about nelson mandela, because what i was not aware of at all was the degree to which he was personally responsible for really the nuts and bolts of the transition from white rule to majority rule. now he's very ill.

>> yeah, yeah. >> what happens after mandela? do you think? >> we go on. >> i think the foundation is laid and i think through god, we have him as a symbol. i think mandela represents our nation. the test we use to check the way forth. >> all the things that could have gone terribly wrong, it's a remarkable thing how well it went. >> between 1990 and 1994, tough times, you know, intercity fighting. black-on-black violence. black-on-white violence. but we transcended that coming together regardless of the unresolved issues. >> to what extent is it a rainbow nation? what extent are things getting mixed? we like to think we live in a rainbow nation, but in fact, in the states like to a great extent in different neighborhoods. in some ways, it looks to me outside looking in, a little more gracefully mixed up than

we've managed in the states. >> here you've got black, white, colored, all sorts of people here. also once you have the knowledge that the economic disparities are managing to keep us divided as well. i think what we need to do is unpack what we mean by rainbow. i think the idea of being united and being diverse also means that there'll be moments of discord. >> and you think things will continue to improve? >> yeah. i think we've seen our worst. and that's not to say that we're getting it right all the time. but it's an experiment you need to find as you go along. that's really the south african story. the dream is there. we all agree that the visions are there. but these are not bigger than our hopes. >> what did i know about south africa before i game here? exactly nothing, as it turns out. but i think based on what i've seen, that if the world can get it right here, a country with a past like south africa's, if they can figure out how to make

it work here for everybody. absorb all the people flooding in from all over africa, continue to make mandela's dream a reality, maybe there's hope for the rest of us. for most of my life, libya was a word with bad associations. libya meant gadhafi. libya meant terrorism. >> pan am flight 103 went down in a blazing fireball. >> libya meant a bad place where a comical, megalomaniacal dictator was the absolute power. nobody in libya, however, was laughing. >> reports of explosions. >> clashes between rioters and security forces. >> in 2011, what was previously unthinkable happened. the libyan people rose up and fought for their freedom. >> heavy battles raging around the libyan capital. >> they fought like hell.